Untitled
by Pilot02
Summary: "Nothing ever happens accidentally in the forest. Keep this in mind." [ Yaoi | AU | Daishirou ]
1. In which Koushirou meets a new friend

.  
  
by Pilot02  
[It Must Be The Goggles]  
http://mbg.100megsfree4.com/  
  
  
My cousin had lost his temper again--the house burned down as a result. His family was living in my house temporarily.   
  
Why did the house burn down, you ask? Well, the answer is simple.  
  
He's a fire witch, as was I.   
  
My name is Izumi Koushirou, although I prefer to be called Izzy.   
  
We--meaning my parents, my cousin's family temporarily, and myself--lived in a rather large forest. The forest was filled with magic--all kinds of magic; wild, high, dark. I, and the rest of my family, extended and immediate both, were of the wild magic category first, and fire magic after that.   
  
My siblings and I--my sister, Sora, and my brother, Jyou--were only partly fire witch. Our mother was half, and our father full. Therefore, we were about 2/3 fire witch, so we still had the magic abilities that full fire witches do, but ours were weaker than most.   
  
Of course, there was a rumor floating around the forest--literally; the ghosts tended to be the most talkative beings you could find there--that said a bond between a being that is mostly something and a being that is mostly something else will strengthen the powers of both of the beings. They should then be the equivalent of or stronger than their pure counterparts, but I for one didn't believe it. For a bond of that kind--a life bond, comparable to a lifetime commitment such as marriage--to be obtained, the two must fall in love deeper and more pure than most are even capable of psychologically doing, or so another rumor went.  
  
Now, don't get me wrong, please. I wasn't one who went for gossip. Our home was relatively near a makeshift cemetery, and some of the resident ghosts had befriended me over the years. I'm sure they were dropping hints to me that it was time to get settled and have a family of my own, but I was only 17! Of course, most of the ghosts there weren't much older than myself--they died in an earthquake many years ago--and they knew how precious what little time you have alive is.   
  
I knew how important it is to live while you can as well. My youngest sister, Miyako, died when she was a little over 11. She told me before she passed away that she wished she had done more of the things that she had wanted to do. I promised that I would live my life to the fullest, but still.  
  
I didn't believe the rumors. They were just rumors, anyway.  
  
* * *  
  
Sometimes, I wondered why it was that I remained living with my parents. After all, I was a mature 17 year old, and it could be slightly embarrassing to have to admit that I lived with them.   
  
An example of such a time is when some of my extended family came to visit, and I was subjected to teasing questions and comments about that fact the whole weekend that they were at our home. The cousin that burnt his house down--he's only 11; a far cry from 17.   
  
Actually, I hadn't met many people around my own age--family and non-family alike. Willis, a magician, was a few years younger than I was, a good friend, and living on his own. Takeru, a member of the royal family of the forest, lived in the castle and rarely left, though I had met him a few times. He, like Willis, was a bit younger than I was. Taichi and Hikari, older and younger by a few years, respectively, were brother and sister witches. Taichi was a good friend of mine; one of the few I actually had.   
  
I took off suddenly into the forest surrounding my home and ignored my cousins yelling for me to 'wait up.' I figured they would give up and go back home eventually--either that or be eaten by a dragon or troll or something, but such is life. They weren't great people, anyway.  
  
I could almost feel the forest shifting under my feet--it tended to do that, mainly so non-magic folk won't find their way into it. I personally thought it was also a system with which to annoy the inhabitants, but that was just my opinion. I ignored the feeling, having been through it more times than I cared to count. I also ignored the feeling of knowing exactly where I was going, when consciously I had no idea. That happened a lot too; nothing happens accidentally in the forest.   
  
* * *  
  
I heard the talking before I saw the talker. I couldn't yet make out any words besides the occasional expletive, and I unconsciously steered my course toward the sound. Mentally I cursed the forest for having this effect on the people inside of it--I had been looking for a trouble-free walk, and who knew what kind of trouble I could be getting into by following the sound. Of course, being a fire witch, I shouldn't have problems if the person decided to try to curse me or something similar--fire witches are immune to most magic, save that of another fire witch.   
  
As I got closer I could make out more and more of what the person was saying, and I could also tell with a good amount of certainty that the unknown person was a 'he.'   
  
"I can't believe... and then I couldn't get... I just want to go..."  
  
I quickened my pace, figuring that the person was a human who stumbled into the forest accidentally. This did occasionally happen, although Yamato, the King of the forest, did his best to insure that it didn't happen. It was actually fairly easy for him to do this--he could manipulate the magic directly, using the strands of it flowing through the forest. All he had to do was create a barrier around the perimeter and let the forest take care of the rest. It's not often that he had to interfere.  
  
By this time, I was standing at the edge of a small clearing, looking at a humanoid figure standing in the middle and a small blue thing by his feet. Yes, I was right, it was a 'he.'   
  
"Hello there. Are you lost?" I questioned softly, trying to not startle him. At the first glance, I knew he wasn't human. I could almost /feel/ the magic radiating from him--he's one that I didn't want to be on the bad side of. He turned quickly to look at me, and he squinted through dirty goggles. And then, he grinned.  
  
"Thank the forest King, someone came!" He said and then pushed the goggles up onto his forehead, his dark burgundy hair spilling over the lenses. As he completed this movement, he started to walk toward me, and I took a step back.  
  
"Who are you? And what are you doing?" I asked, keeping an eye on the blue thing. It made me slightly uneasy.   
  
"Sorry, I forgot about all that. My name's Motomiya Daisuke, and I am /trying/ to find my way home. As for what I came out here to do originally, that's a secret." He grinned once more, a small lopsided grin. He picked up the blue thing, which didn't struggle, and held it out as if offering it to me. To my surprise, it smiled at me.   
  
"Hello Red. It's nice to meet you. My name's V-mon, and I'm a monigid." Daisuke smiled sheepishly at my confused expression.  
  
"A monigid is a magical creature--I came across him a long time ago. He tends to make nicknames for people he meets; I guess your new name is Red." A slight grin accompanied the last comment.  
  
"Oh. Well, my name is Izumi Koushirou. Do you need anything?" I asked, feeling uneasy again. I realized that it wasn't the 'monigid' that was making me feel this way--it was something I was picking up from Daisuke. I decided not to question it, as I wasn't sure what he was, and therefore didn't know if I was immune to his particular type of magic. In my opinion, now would not be a good time to find out.   
  
"Well, you /could/ try to help me get home..." Daisuke answered, not meeting my gaze. I knew when someone was hiding something, and I knew that he was definitely up to something. Another thing that I had been taught was to never make promises without knowing /exactly/ what you must do beforehand.   
  
"Where do you live?" I asked, and he brought his head up so that mine was in his line of vision once more. Once more, that grin became apparent on his face.  
  
"You're smart. I like that." He sighed then, looking into the trees. "The truth is, I just got kicked out. I can't go back there. I was hoping you would walk around with me until I found a new place to stay." He gave me the most pitiful look he could muster at the time, which happened to be the beaten-puppy-for-no-good-reason look. Resistance was, as they say, futile.  
  
I thought about what I was going to say, and finally came up with a plan. "You can come back to my house with me, and I'll see if my parents will let you stay there. If not, I'll contact some of my friends and see if they know of a place. Does that sound all right to you?"  
  
He looked at me and the puppy-dog look disappeared, covered up by an amused look. "Still living with your parents, eh? I wouldn't've thought you to be the type." I glared at him, and he smiled and continued. "It's not a big deal, really. I lived with my parents up until, oh, about two hours ago."  
  
"We'd better get going, if we are to make it back before dark. If we time it right, my mother won't refuse to let you stay--we have to get there right when the sun sets, no sooner, no later."  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"Because--" I blushed. "--if we arrive after dark, she would assume that I was off... 'fooling around' with you and didn't want her to see if my clothes or hair were at all messed up. If we arrive before then, she would say that there was still time for you to find a new place to stay."   
  
"Oh, alright. Well, why don't we come in after dark, then? What mother could refuse to let her son's 'lover' inside?"  
  
My only response was a shake of the head and a blush.  
  
This was going to be a long walk.  



	2. In which friends are reunited

. Part 2  
  
by Pilot02  
[It Must Be The Goggles]  
http://mbg.100megsfree4.com/  
  
  
Finally, after several hours of walking, we made it back to the small clearing that the house was in. The forest seemed to conspire against us, and the sun had long since set when we practically crawled into the clearing. I could hear the ghosts talking amongst themselves as we approached, and even more so once they found that Daisuke was a boy. The ghosts held the same views on arrival times as my mother.   
  
Daisuke only grinned; he's the only one I know of that can just grin and take it while being interrogated by the resident ghosts. I glared at them until they retreated, leaving us in peace to face my mother and my teasing relatives.   
  
"So, Kou-chan. What am I to say if someone in the house asks me about our activities in the forest? And what about rooming arrangements? Am I to sleep in your room, or is there a spare one that I should take?" I wanted to wipe the innocent yet mischievous smirk off his face as I realized that my cousin had been standing at the window, listening to the conversation.  
  
"Aunt Izumi! Koushirou's brought his boyfriend home!" I swore; everyone was against me then. You could practically hear a pin drop in the house as I walked in, followed closely by Daisuke--that's how well everyone handled it.   
  
That is, everyone except for myself.   
  
I had a horribly strong urge to burn something--being a fire witch tends to bring out some pyromanic tendencies. Instead, I settled for glaring at everyone in between the door and my room.   
  
Predictably, although nothing like this had happened before, my mother gave me the 'we'll talk about this later' look and shuffled us off to my room, mumbling about extra blankets and pillows.  
  
I took the blankets she gave us, fully intending to make Daisuke sleep on the floor, but I turned around to see that he was sleeping on my bed, carefully keeping to one side, his monigid curled up on the foot of the bed.   
  
He looked so innocent, so fragile at that moment that all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and never let go--but I shook myself out of whatever feeling had caught me and sighed. After a moment's hesitation I sat down on the opposite side of the bed, then slowly lowered myself into a better position to sleep. Daisuke didn't stir through this, but his monigid did. He blinked sleepily and then gave me the strangest look I had been given in my strangely chaotic life--it was almost as if he was asking me what took so long with his expression.  
  
I forced all the thoughts out of my mind except those focused on getting to sleep, and eventually did just that.   
  
* * *  
  
I woke the next morning surrounded by warmth and filled with a deep sense of security--like it didn't matter at all that I was lying in the arms of someone who I had just met the day before. For an indeterminate amount of time, I just lie there; awake but not willing to make the moment end so soon. My mother, unfortunately, was not aware of the emotional turmoil I was in--/It feels so right! How can this be wrong?/--so she set about making breakfast as usual, and then came to wake me up.   
  
As the door widened, so did her eyes as they took in the scene before her. She blushed profusely as I glared at her, then she quickly ran back to the kitchen, where problems like this didn't reside.   
  
Daisuke woke a while later--I was still in the same position and was unable to see the clock--to the timid knocking on the door that was undoubtedly my mother.   
  
She learns quickly.  
  
Daisuke sighed and tapped me on the shoulder after pulling his arms back from their positions around me. The loss I felt at the absence of his touch was inexplicable and all consuming. I barely was able to focus on his words as he spoke, only managing to mumble a reply that sounded similar to 'yes?' and turn to face him.  
  
"I think that's your mom, Kou-chan. We'd better get up now, don't you think?"   
  
I answered in a reluctant nod. "You can go down, I need to change my clothes. Just... be careful what you say to the family, alright?"   
  
Daisuke grinned, nodded, leaned close and kissed me, and then left.   
  
He kissed me!  
  
I knew it was too soon to know if he were the one for me, but as I was thinking about the occurrences of the last day or so, the words of a long-lost family member came back into my memory. 'Nothing happens accidentally in the forest. There are no coincidences--keep this in mind.'  
  
A grin developed on my face as I got dressed, and remained stubbornly in place throughout breakfast and the interrogation that came with it.   
  
The second we--meaning Daisuke and I--were done eating, I grabbed his hand and dragged him outside, where I turned to face him. Thoughts were racing through my head in drastic contrast to the ones of earlier, as is not unusual for a fire witch--especially a half. What if he was just playing with my emotions? What if he wasn't sincere, and just wanted to use me for some ulterior motive? A hidden agenda?  
  
My eyes closed involuntarily, and then assumed the glare position. "You... what are you playing at here? You think that you can just waltz into my life and shake it all up like this, and I'm supposed to accept that with no explanation? I can't! You'd better start talking." I said in a burst of irrational anger. My grin was gone, and his practically melted off his face as he took a step back.   
  
"I don't know what you're talking about. I never meant to come and make your life miserable; it's not my fault my parents kicked me out. It's not my fault the forest led you to me! Nothing accidental happens here, you should know that by now. Doesn't that mean anything to you? There's always a reason, that's why I went with you." He'd gone an unbelievable shade of pale and the pain in his eyes was evident.   
  
"I... you... I'm sorry, Dai. I didn't mean to be like that, really... I'm so sorry."   
  
"It's all right--I know about the temper that goes with being what you are... I'd better go though. Need to find a place to stay, after all." With those parting words and one last grin, he walked away, V-mon in tow.   
  
He just walked away. From the clearing, from the house, the extended family.   
  
From me.  
  
That's what hurt the most--and it was my fault.   
  
The sadness fell over me and it was like I had been plunged unprepared into a lake in the middle of winter--my chest tightened up, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk. A single tear escaped my tightly closed eyes and where it landed a small blue flower sprouted, borne of tears.   
  
* * *  
  
All day I moped around the clearing, not stepping foot into the house, yet never wandering too far from the flower. It was almost as if it had some kind of pull on me--and knowing the forest, it very well may have.  
  
My mother came out on one occasion to see if everything was alright, but she ran back inside before I could tell her exactly to what extent that everything /wasn't/ right. I glanced at the sun later on and determined the time to be around 1:30, and I was a little hungry.   
  
Still, I remained outside.   
  
It was almost as if I subconsciously believed I could bring him back by being stubborn and refusing to put what little time I had spent with him behind me. Consciously, I knew it wouldn't work, but I was too depressed to do anything else.   
  
After finding out that my appetite was shot, I headed to the graveyard. I had to get my thoughts out of my head, and I figured that this was the best way to go about doing it.   
  
One particularly friendly ghost, Mimi, came rushing over to me as soon as I stepped into the small clearing.   
  
"Koushirou, what's wrong? You look like someone just died!" She exclaimed, drawing the attention of several other ghosts. I didn't really want to say what I did next, but it slipped out before I could stop it.   
  
"Not someone, Mimi. Something. It's my heart. I think it's broken."  
  
Mimi, at that point, burst into tears, and the rest of the ghosts hurried to her side while encouraging me to tell them what had happened.   
  
Wearily I recounted the tale of what had to have been the best days of my life and when I was done, tears were streaming down my face and I couldn't stop crying. The ghosts murmured and whispered amongst themselves and I finally got control enough of myself to be able to ask a single question.   
  
"Is it possible to find your soul mate so early in life?"   
  
The answer, as the ghosts told me, was yes, and while the talk was supposed to have made me feel better, I left feeling more depressed than I had been before.   
  
I had pushed away my soul mate, my other half. What could I do about it? The answer to that was, depressingly enough, nothing.   
  
* * *  
  
My little flower was flourishing, I noticed as I walked back into the clearing. It had grown several inches and was now a brighter blue. I stopped to wonder about this but before I had come to a semi-reasonable conclusion, I heard a noise, spun around, and was tackled.   
  
I opened my eyes to see a large reddish dog lying across my chest, Daisuke's goggles around its neck and V-mon on its back.   
  
"Wha...?" I asked as intelligently I could, considering the fact that I had just been tackled and was already emotionally stressed out.   
  
The dog, as if to add to my obvious confusion, seemed to smile at me before licking my face and letting me up. I looked around, drowning in my confusion. If V-mon were here, shouldn't Daisuke be here? And why did this dog have his goggles, anyway? It didn't make any sense to me. I was about to walk back to the house to think when a near laugh like sound reached my ears.   
  
My heart hurt--it sounded like Daisuke's laugh.   
  
I took another step, determined to get back into the relative safety of my house, when the blue flower caught my eye again. It was practically glowing--it actually seemed smug. I turned toward the flower and frowned--a smug flower isn't something you see everyday, after all--then turned toward V-mon. He shrugged and motioned to his left. I turned, and there was the dog again, the goggles still around his neck.   
  
It seemed to me that I was to take the goggles, and I did, gently placing them on my own head. I gave a soft, sad sigh and turned once more to return to the house. It wasn't until a hand laid itself on my shoulder that I turned and saw Daisuke, goggle-less, standing behind me.   
  
My eyes opened wide and I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug, one that he willingly returned.   
  
"I... where were you?"  
  
"I was wandering around all day, but the forest kept shifting so I ended up here. I don't think I was ever supposed to be anywhere else, Kou."  
  
"I know..."  
  
"So I came to see you this time, instead of wandering off again."  
  
"The dog?"  
  
"Me. I never did tell you exactly what I am, but I know you suspected something non-human. Truth is, I'm not quite one thing or the other. My parents can both change into multiple creatures, but my da's half human. It seems I got his human half, so all I can manage is the dog."   
  
I pulled out of his embrace to look at him and I took in his sheepish expression.  
  
"I don't care. 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet'--and I would love you just as much no matter what." 


End file.
